Way of the Shadows. Cynthia Eden

bright.

      Noelle’s shoulders hunched. She looked down at her wrists. They were bloody and raw. And her hands—her hands were stained with blood. So was her gown. The gown she’d worn to sleep when she climbed into her own bed.

      This isn’t my home. But she couldn’t remember how she’d gotten there. Noelle only knew darkness.

      The deputy pulled off his coat. Carefully, he put it around her shoulders. “Tell me what happened.” He was leading her from the cabin keeping his fingers around her arm. “Get me a medic!” He called out to another one of the men swarming the area.

      Then she was outside. The night air was crisp, but she could still smell blood.

      Because it’s on me.

      “I want to go home,” Noelle whispered. “I want to see my parents.” Noelle was seventeen. She was a sophomore at Coleman High School. She was cheering at the football game on Friday. She was—

      Noelle’s knees gave way and she would’ve hit the ground if the deputy hadn’t grabbed her. He lifted her up against his chest, holding her tightly. “Medic!” the deputy yelled.

      She wasn’t just shaking any longer. Noelle’s eyes rolled back in her head as giant shudders jolted through her.

      The deputy carried her to a gurney. He and the medic strapped her down. “What the hell is happening?”

      “Noelle!” She heard the scream distantly, but she knew that voice. It was her mother’s voice. Noelle tried to respond, but she couldn’t speak.

      “She’s seizing,” the medic snapped. “We need to get her stable!”

      The darkness seemed to close in again. She didn’t want to go back into the dark.

      Something bad waited in the dark.

      Death waited.

      But Noelle couldn’t fight, and the darkness took her once more.

      * * *

      THE NEXT TIME Noelle’s eyes opened, she was surrounded by a sea of white. The scent of antiseptic told her she was in the hospital even before the room came into focus.

      She blinked a few times then saw her mother’s tear-filled gaze. “You’re okay, baby,” her mom whispered.

      Noelle didn’t feel okay.

      “We need to ask her some questions.”

      Noelle’s gaze darted to the left at those words. Her father stood close by. He looked pale, and...older than she’d ever seen him.

      Right next to her father, Sheriff Morris Bartley stood, his stare on her. He leaned toward Noelle.

      “She just woke up,” her father gritted out.

      “I know.” The sheriff sighed. “But she’s the only one who can tell us what happened. I got a dead body, and I got her and I need to know—”

      The darkness waited.

      Noelle gave a hard, negative shake of her head.

      “Noelle, how did you wind up in that cabin?” the sheriff asked her.

      “This needs to wait,” her father barked.

      The machines around Noelle began to beep, faster, louder.

      “Who was the dead man? Is he the one who took you? Is he—”

      “I don’t remember,” Noelle whispered. Her throat hurt. She hurt.

      The sheriff exhaled on a rough sigh. His hands gripped his hat. “Start with what you know. Tell me who took you from your house. Tell me how you got to that cabin and how—”

      “I don’t remember.” Her voice was even softer now.

      The sheriff’s brows shot up. “Did you leave your house willingly? Is that what happened? Did you—?”

      He didn’t understand. “I don’t...remember anything.”

      Her mother gave a little gasp.

      “I was in my room, in my bed.” Noelle’s heart galloped in her chest. The machines raced. “Then I was in the dark.” She blinked away the tears that filled her eyes.

      Something happened in the dark. Something bad.

      “I don’t remember,” she said again, and it was almost as if...as if the words were a vow.

      The machines beeped louder around her. Noelle’s mother pulled Noelle into a tight hug.

      And, over her mother’s shoulder, Noelle glanced up and met the eyes of the sheriff. There was concern in his gaze and suspicion.

      I don’t remember.

      There was only darkness in her mind, and Noelle didn’t know if that was good...or bad.

       Chapter One

      Fifteen years later...

      The plane dipped, hitting another hard patch of turbulence, and Noelle Evers locked her fingers around the armrest on either side of her body. The private plane was currently flying over an area of pure-white land in Alaska, and Noelle was afraid they might be diving right into that snowy landscape at any moment.

      “Relax,” a low, gravel-rough voice told her. “We’ll be landing in just a few more minutes.”

      The voice—and the guy who went with that voice—pulled Noelle’s attention from the narrow window. She looked at the man seated directly across from her.

      Thomas Anthony.

      Tall, dark, deadly...and, currently, her partner on this assignment. Thomas “Dragon” Anthony was a man who seemed to always put her on edge.

      “If you’re going to be working with the EOD,” Thomas murmured as he lifted one dark eyebrow, “rough flights will be the least of your worries.”

      Noelle forced herself to take a long, deep breath. She didn’t want to show any weakness in front of Thomas. The man made her far too...nervous. Too aware.

      Noelle was new to the EOD—the Elite Operations Division. She’d been recruited by EOD Director Bruce Mercer a few months back. Normally, the agents in that secretive group were all ex-military. They belonged to some of the most elite military units operating in the world. The agents were recruited to join the EOD because of their skills and because they were deadly when it came to their missions.

      Noelle wasn’t ex-military. She didn’t specialize in killing or hunting prey. Instead, her specialty was getting inside a killer’s mind. Before Bruce Mercer had used his pull to get Noelle into the EOD, she’d been working as a profiler at the FBI.

      But then one of the EOD agents had gone rogue...and Mercer had brought her in to profile the agents there.

      To hunt a killer within the division.

      “You don’t fit, you know,” Thomas added in that deep, dark voice of his. A voice that made her tense and think of things she really shouldn’t.

      The plane bounced again. Noelle swallowed. “You mean because I lack the military training?”

      “I mean because when we get into a life-or-death situation—and we will—you won’t be prepared to take the necessary action.”

      Her eyes narrowed at those words. Way to insult your partner on the first case. “Look, I might not be an ex–Army Ranger—” as he was “—but I worked at the FBI for five years. I’ve been in plenty of dangerous situations, and I’ve handled myself just fine.”

      Thomas’s lips quirked a bit. They were sensual lips, with a faintly cruel edge. Thomas was a handsome man, if you went for the deadly, dangerous type. As a general rule, Noelle definitely did not go for that type. She preferred